GM TOP #5-S: Siege of the Diamond City lvl 3-4 (Standard, Retrocon) (Inactive)

Game Master Pete H.

Understood Torsten, that's one of the issues when I get descriptive and not specific about certain mechanics.

Guy moves up past the crusaders and to the edge of the cloud, they just look at each other as he does so. He begins singing a beautiful song and suddenly, almost everyone can see through the cloud to see that Torsten, Gordy, Flip & Big Sky are doing just fine.

Dana and Taniian both release bolts of force that slam into the standing dretch, battering it with magic. It falls to the ground with a thump, body melting into goo.

Torsten slashes again at the remaining beast on the ground and Gordy moves up next to him, hacking it's head off. The body also melts into a puddle.

Flip, you can save that good attack roll/damage for...

The two crusaders look into the cloud with amazement and then at each other, "see! I told you dretchs wouldn't work, way to weak!" Then in unison, they turn and attempt to trip two pathfinders with their fancy reach weapons.

Dana slams onto her back without even knowing what happened and Taniian quickly follows suit.

Round 3 Bless is up!
Guy
Dana (Prone)
Taniian (Prone)
Torsten
Gordy (Fort 13 vs. Nauseated or 50% hold breath then maybe save)
Flip & Big Sky (Fort 13 vs. Nauseated for both or 50% hold breath then maybe save)
Dretchs (Blue -19 & down, Red -20 & down)
Crusader TRAITORS (Green, Yellow)

Bold are up!

Torsten made the 1st round save vs. the cloud and then held his breath for the 2nd round, he is good to go. Gordy, Flip & Big Sky need to make saves for the 2nd round (or try to hold their breath) since they did not leave the cloud. There won't be a 3rd round of the cloud, fyi.

Guy continues his song, but lowers his bow.

Grabbing the scroll from earlier, he reads it off. Suddenly the two traitors, the barricade and everything in it is sparkly!
Glitterdust from scroll, DC 13 Will or blind.

Dropping the now useless parchment, he gets his bow ready again.

Continued the song for Gordy and Torsten, so they can see their way out of the fog!

Fort Save: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 12 + 2 = 15

It's the only way I could fail!

Gordy breathes in the stinking cloud deeply, astounded by how much the cloud smells like his old mother's cooking. Then he suddenly remembers; his mother was a legendarily terrible cook. As he recalls the gray soup with over cooked fish heads floating on top, bile starts rising in his throat.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," he groans as he stumbles out of the cloud.

hold breath, high is good: 1d100 ⇒ 81

Torsten bears down through the cloud, hearing the oh so predictable drama unfold. Noting a change in tone from Guy's song and the "crusaders" suddenly squinting into the pea-soup, he steps forward, slipping within the reach of their polearms and stepping around to put himself between his allies and the traitors.

Finally out of the cloud: "It's not the dretches that are weak, it's you. Allying with the Abyss? Look at yourself. Pathetic."

Dana stays on the ground and starts casting a toppling magic missile.

Full round action.

Magic missile green, CMB +6 : 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 31d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
magic missile yellow, CMB +6 : 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 31d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19

A cloud of sparkling dust descends upon the ones who have chosen their allegiances poorly.

Green is blind, Yellow is not. Both are knocked prone as the missiles hit them.

Gordy Nauseated Duration: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 rounds.

Fort: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22

Flip saves vs the cloud. "Deceivers! THIS ENDS NOW!"

Longbow: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
Cold Iron Arrows: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

But he's shaking with rage so hard that he misses the long bow shot!

Fortitude: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Hover Check: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Translation: "I will feed your entrails to my young!'

Big Sky makes her second save!

Taniian stands then sends a magic missile toward yellow.

force damage: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

lucky number reroll: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Using a scroll, Guy drops a glittery pile of dust down upon the two traitors. The closer one to him seems to get it in his eyes.

Dana takes advantage of this fact, taking her time to cast her 2nd favorite spell, but instead of two small orbs of force, two much heftier orbs appear and streak at the enemies, slamming into their chests with enough force to knock them to the ground.

Taniian stands up and...

...one of the prone crusaders takes advantage of his standing to slash a large wound across his midsection with his reach weapon. (10 Damage Taniian) Taniian activates his wand in return, sending a bolt of force at the same jerk that just injured him, it slams into his chest.

Torsten moves quickly and easily through the fog, taking advantage of the cover to jump out right next to the blind/prone crusader, putting himself between them and two of his allies.

Gordy looses part of his lunch.

Flip channels his inner rage, launching an arrow very very hard at the ground near one of the traitors. Big Sky screeches in anger as well, but doesn't lose her concentration on keeping up in the air.

The fog fades mercifully (only lasted 2 rounds).

The back crusader (yellow) stands up and attempts to trip Taniian again, as it seemed to work well the first time. The one next to Torsten very carefully stands up (total defense, stands and provokes from Torsten)

The trip attempt fails, but his ally's eyes seem to be less clouded now. (Green made the save allowed vs. blind at the end of his turn)

Round 4 Bless is up!
Guy
Dana (Prone)
Taniian (-10)
Torsten (AoO vs. Yellow)
Gordy (Nauseated 3/4)
Flip & Big Sky
Dretchs (Blue -19 & down, Red -20 & down)
Crusader TRAITORS (Yellow -6, Green -3 Total D)

Bold are up!

Guy stops his song.

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” he grumbles at the false crusaders.

He once again removes a hand from his bow in order to use a scroll, but this time he taps Dana’s head before putting his hands back on the bow.
Invisibility scroll used, Dana can now move around (including standing) without provoking.

Taniian grunts in surprise and pain and drops his wand. His mindblade however, does not waver. As he staggers slightly he narrowly misses tripping on the crusader's weapon.

With visions of dinosaurs swirling in his head (was the weaponed poisoned or has it just been a very long day?) he defensively casts Ray of Frost, loading it into his weapon, takes a five-foot step and strikes back at the crusader in the yellow tabard.

Casting defensively DC15: 1d20 + 4 + 4 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 4 + 4 + 1 = 22 Arcane Temper

+2 Elven Thornbladeattack during spell combat + Bless: 1d20 + 10 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 10 - 2 + 1 = 24
Potential piercing/slashing/magic damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Ray of Frost cold damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

+2 Elven Thornbladeattack during spell combat + Bless: 1d20 + 10 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 10 - 2 + 1 = 27
Potential piercing/slashing/magic damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

AoO, bless: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Torsten squares off against the traitor next to him [i.e. green]. "Why? What made you turn your back on mankind and sell yourself to the Abyss?"

To hit, bless: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
damage: 1d10 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

With the flurry of attacks hitting them, the traitors realize they are overmatched and drop their weapons, surrendering. "It doesn't matter if we fail here, the horde will rush over this place like a swarm of locusts, destroying all that is here. Even if you kill us now, we will win. There is a place reserved for us on the winning side, we just may not see it in these forms. You have already lost."

Current Party Injuries: Taniian -10.

Torsten kicks their weapons away, keeping the axe hanging over their heads. He's scathing as he speaks to them. "You're hoping for a reward in the Abyss? Lowlifes such as you will just be reborn as maggots to be eaten by real demons. There is no hope for you there."

Torsten will supervise the rest tying them up so they can be brought in for judgment later on.

Flip helps tie up the surrendered traitors.

"Taniian, do you need healing, my friend?" Flip is willing to use either his wand or Taniian's to see his friend healed.

Then he turns to the tied up Crusaders. "You are fools, and the basest and most cowardly scum. You deserve both the fate that is coming to you in the afterlife, and the fate that awaits traitors when you face judgment HERE."

Taniian, roll your healing and tell me which wand you are using.

Guy is also always willing to operate wands for people out of combat. Just roll it and mark off the charges.

“I’m sort of curious, who or what recruited you? What sounded so good about losing your individual identities to become part of the Abyss? You aren’t winning, just getting your souls shredded.”

These men have to be fools to make deals with demons.

I think you guys can mop these guys up without me.

Gordy continues heaving against the wall, trying to get back to his senses.

"Ahhh, this is so embarrassing."

He sneers at you, "recruited us? Hahaha! We've been on the right side since the beginning. Fools and your pathetic mortal rewards, can only think of yourselves... and it is better to serve as a cockroach to true power than a lapdog to other humans. You may have won the battle, but the war is far from over."

You escort the (probably) cultists back to a secure location and turn them over for treason, they are quickly jailed for a later trial.

_________________________________________________________

Venture-Captain Jorsal approaches on horseback at a gallop, stopping mere feet away. The captain is visibly worn from the siege, but he still gives a quick smile and a polite bow of his head as he steadies his mount. “We’ve contained the demons within the city, but a new threat comes from the northwest. What we thought was the main army is merely the advance unit of a larger force that’s now on our doorstep. There must be thousands of the vile creatures in the host, but worst of all, they have brought siege weapons to their aid.”

“The dreaded kakuen-taka, the swarm siege towers of the Abyss, now march on Nerosyan. As you’ve already proven yourselves quite capable, I need you to make your way to the northwestern ramparts and aid in putting Nerosyan’s own siege weapons to use. The crusaders are sending most of their troops out to battle the demonic towers before they can damage the walls, so every boulder and ballista bolt we loose against this horde will be an invaluable boon for those taking the battle to the heart of this Abyssal cohort."

“I am sending our most experienced Pathfinders to engage the enemy commanders directly, and they will be relying on your support. Other agents will try to send you reinforcements, so stay alert.” With that, Jorsal steers his horse away and charges off to bring word to other Pathfinders in the city.

The short version of this next part is that you will be protecting a huge siege weapon and making sure it keeps firing. Successes come each time it fires. Baby has been needy most of the day, but if I'm lucky I'll get a chance to put more and the map up tonight. In the meantime, heal and prepare. You may cast longer duration stuff and heal up while you head to the battlefield.

Flip has no long term buffs. He does double check that everyone still has a lucky number, and to make sure that everyone is healed up.

"Guy can you cast Ant Haul for Big Sky from this wand? It might help us do a timely rescue."

He also double-checks that all three nets are folded correctly and mended.

“Protect the catapults, got it!” Guy responds to Jorsal.

When Flip brings the wand to Guy, he looks at it and says “I can try...”

UMD: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19
UMD: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Smiling, he replies “Got it!”

Headed towards the seige engines, he says “I have another of the Heroism spells I used on Taniian. Should we use it now, and if so who should we use it on?”

Taniian thanks flip as he hands over his wand of CLW.

healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8

2 additional charges marked off

He also accepts the new gift of luck that the generous Grippli offers.
New lucky number: 1d20 ⇒ 20 Aargh! Waste of a natural 20!

In response to Guy, Taniian observes,"Your magic to boost my sense of heroism really did a wonderful job. I think it would be most valuable to use again though I am unsure on whom it would best be applied. As it benefits both skills and combat, perhaps it would be best to evaluate the requirements of our new post to see who would benefit the most."

If he has time, Guy tries to mend Flip’s damaged net again.

Mending: 1d4 ⇒ 2

Surveying the oncoming hordes, Torsten drinks a helpfully provided potion of Bull's Strength. Depending on map size, also Enlarge Person. Right now the map is too small.

I am happy to reposition to where most needed. As the first person on the map, I chose a spot that looked like I could step up to defend or scoot back to shoot. As a player, I have no experience in such warfare and will happily accept direction.

The group approaches the siege area, which has devolved into almost the front lines as the crusader army and pathfinders attempt to rally and hold off the demonic horde crashing upon them. Directed quickly to an unguarded section of the 'wall' they are simply told, "protect the siege engineers and keep our big guns firing at the enemy!"

The wall though, is much less a structure and much more a defensible mound of dirt. Up the backside the pathfinders easily make their way onto the top via wooden scaffolding. Finding themselves with a good view of the battle, they discover there isn't much more than their elevation and a few sharpened spikes of wood between them and the chaotic fighting. The elevation though appears to be doing it's job at the moment, as it prevents the few demons who work their way through the lines access directly to the siege as they face a 20 ft difficult climb up.

One of the four engineers turns towards you all, "thank the gods! Please tell me that you are assigned to protect us. The one guard we came with chased a demon over the edge and well... has not come back. But if you watch our backs we can really unload some harm on their army!"

The Large siege engines (on each side) are meant to engage nearby threats, and the PCs can employ them against enemies on the ramparts. These siege engines require 1 round to reload and can be fired as a standard action. Unlike with the Huge siege engine, which targets enemies beyond the ramparts, a PC firing a Large siege engine must make a ranged attack roll against a target. A successful hit deals 4d6 points of damage that overcomes damage reduction as a cold iron and good weapon. Incoming Initiative and First Round of actions.

1d6 ⇒ 6

Round 1
Gordy
Flip
Dana
Torsten
Taniian
Guy
Siege Engineers

Bold is up! Stuff might occur soon, good luck! You may still adjust your beginning placement and then take your round 1 action.

Dana uses her last spell to cast Bless!

Realising that they are once again to be facing mostly demons, Taniian dismisses his mindblade and draws the MW Cold Iron blade. He also pulls out a scroll and (unless any in the team object) casts magic weapon on the blade. "The more damage I can do, the better I am able to protect you," he notes to the engineer watching him.

Round 1 Bless is up! 30/30
Gordy
Flip
Dana
Torsten
Taniian (Magic Weapon 10/10)
Guy
Siege Engineers

Bold is up! Stuff might occur soon, good luck! You may still adjust your beginning placement and then take your round 1 action.

Torsten quickly rubs some alchemical grease on his armor, just in case a demon gets grabby and tries to pull him off the ramparts. Gives me +5 alchemical bonus to CMD and Escape Artist to avoid being grappled.

Feeling that a threat might start come Ng up the hill any moment, Gordy begins gathering energy but sucking up all the moisture around him.

Gather Energy as a full round action, though if possible I'd like to only gather 1 point because I don't have anything I could use 2 points for.

Gordy, sure.

Round 1 Bless is up! 30/30
Gordy (gather power 1 pt)
Flip
Dana
Torsten (Bull's Strength 30/30, Alch. Grease)
Taniian (Magic Weapon 10/10)
Guy
Siege Engineers

Bold is up! Stuff might occur soon, good luck! You may still adjust your beginning placement and then take your round 1 action.

ROUND ONE:

"Er, you need someone to man the large siege engine? I'm the frog for your job!" Flip loads the ballista!

ROUND TWO:

Ballistae+Bless: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
Crit?: 1d20 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 7 + 1 = 24
Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 6, 1, 1) = 12
Crit Damage: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 5, 4, 1) = 16

Flip aims at the queen bee who just stung his friend.

"There's more of that coming at you, you no good card-cheating venomous scoundrel!"

Then he calls to his friends. "Taniian, if you use the scroll of obscuring mist, Guy can allow us to see through! It will provide us protection from the hordes and random demons!"

1d20 ⇒ 7

Two things happen in quick succession, firstly you all hear a whistling sound to indicate incoming siege ordinance. It gets closer and closer and the hair raises on the backs of your necks (maybe not on Torsten's, he's seen some stuff...).

BOOOOOOOM!!!!

Echoes of the impact ring in your ears as you survey the damage. Some sort of shrapnel filled explosive device landed directly behind the huge siege weapon, launching deadly projectiles all around it. Unfortunately, two of the engineers took the full brunt of the blast and lie un-moving on the ground. Their allies rush to their sides. You hear cussing and if anyone moves close enough you can tell why, one is obviously dead with a laceration through his neck about 2 inches short of full decapitation. The other looked okay, until rolled over and the back third of his skull is missing.

(I'm not saying you can't try or RP anything, but I'm giving fair warning about not wasting healing or time on these guys. The scenario gives me no options and just says they are dead from the attack, I don't even have a single chance to let you try to save them.)

The other two siege engineers start arguing, "dammit! We can't operate this thing with just two of us! We need at least four or we won't even get a shot off!"

A blink after they say that you hear a frantic droning sound that rises to a buzzing and faster than anyone can react, flies a massive winged bee-like creature in a straight line right over the battle and attempts to spear Torsten 1, Dana 2: 1d2 ⇒ 1 the dwarven paladin through the chest with its stinger. (180ft flying charge)

The stinger penetrates the armor, injecting poison and drawing blood as it withdraws. (9 damage -1 DR, DC 17 Fort Save vs. Poison, 2 consecutive saves to cure)

Round 2 Bless is up! 29/30
Giant Queen Bee!!! (-2 AC)
Gordy (gathered power 1 pt)
Flip
Dana
Torsten (-8, Bull's Strength 29/30, Alch. Grease)
Taniian (Magic Weapon 9/10)
Guy
Same Giant Queen Bee Again? WTF!!! (-2 AC)
Siege Engineers

Bold is up! Flip's action was botted, he loaded the other ballista. If he was going to do something completely different I'll probably allow it.

Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Flip knows nothing of the creature but how to aim a ballista at it. But his shot almost blows its smug little wings off.

"Torsten, are you alright?" Then he looks to Dana. "Can you cast the Obscuring Mist while Taniian helps Torsten fight that thing? Once we have the protection in place, let's start shooting the demons as fast as we can!"

K. Planes: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18 Immunities please

"Now they are sending aerial attacks via fiendishly corrupted giant bees! I dread to think what may come next."

Having just finished loading his ballista, Guy is surprised as the enemy round lands and kills two of their crew!

He quickly asks the engineers “Are you going to need help operating that?” He isn’t sure if they even heard his question, but he got the answer.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the Queen Bee came in and stung Torsten. Wow! That is a big, nasty looking bee!
Kn: Planes: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17 Resistances

At Flip’s comment, Guy waits to hear Dana’s response before acting,

If Obscuring Mist this round...

Guy begins singing so that all of them can see through the mist that Dana will be creating.

If no Obscuring Mist

Seeing that Flip had hit the creature squarely, Guy hopes that it is almost dead and leaves the ballista loaded. He moves to the side, drawing his bow and fires at the Queen Bee.

Move 15’ east so he is directly south of QB and has a clear line of fire.

Kn planes : 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28 Special ability, special weakness please.

She swiftly activates her force field.

swift action: Spending 3 points of my phrenic pool to gain 13 temp HP and fast healing 2 for 6 minutes.

I would post my standard and move when I know if someone wants to be invisible. Also: helping to man the ballista for Dana makes sense as she cannot really support. But her to hit is poor so she could only help to load moving from one ballistia to the other. Does that make sense?

I thought successes came off firing the Catapult? If that is the case, we need two manning the Catapult (the big siege engine), not the smaller ballista.

Invisibility on Dana if she is willing to load the Catapult sounds good to me.

Gordy uses the built up energy he has to form a kinetic weapon in the shape of a dwarven warhammer. Gordy moves over to the bee that stung Torsten, somersaulting gracefully under its stinger as he swings a hammer made of solid water at it.

Acrobatics to Tumble: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Kinetic Blade: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 8 + 1 = 22

Magic, Blunt: 2d6 + 7 ⇒ (2, 4) + 7 = 13

I am really not sure if it is not better to use Mirror Image and attract at least some attacks to Dana (who then would have her defenses up) instead of staying invisible. Does anybody else want to be invisible?

"OOFFFF"
Fort vs. poison: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Lay on Hands: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

To hit, BS, bless: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

"I've been better but it takes more than that to kill me."

He looks around at the dead siege crew. "Ah crap. Dana, if you're out of spells, can you fill in with the crew? I'm sure you're tough enough to stand here, but so am I and at least in theory I can hack this thing apart, and you can't.."

Dana nods at Torsten and retrieves her scroll of Mirror Image and casts it.

Mirror images: 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

”I will take care of the siege engine then!“

Will move over in the next round. I had already made a 5 ft step.

Since no one said they were casting from the scroll of Obscuring Mist, I shot my bow. Updating my character position now,

“I will also help with the catapult. That will give us enough crew to fire it.” Guy says.

“Torsten, Taniian and Gordy are all better in combat than I, and Flip riding Big Sky has the mobility to get where they are most needed.”

Looking to the rest of the group, he asks “Sound good?”

I'll do a couple posts here, hopefully both this morning. First post, knowledge checks and miscellaneous.

Immunities: Mind-affecting Effects. Resistances: DR 5/Good, Resist 10 cold & fire, Spell Resistance 12. Special Ability: Dual Initiative (Ex): The monster gets two turns each round, one on its initiative count and another on its initiative count – 20. Weaknesses: Vulnerability to Smoke Effects.

Guy, yes the successes come from firing the huge siege weapon in the middle. Crew of 4 is required for that process to move along.

Torsten's poison effect (I was expecting a made save, he usually rocks those) is 1d2 ⇒ 1 Con Damage. We'll wait until you actually need to make the next save to ask for it, but we have a couple things between now and then.

Taniian hasn't acted. Can he cast the Mist while Guy sings?

Unusually for a monster of its size, it is incapable of stinging anything that is not right next to it (no reach). Gordy moves up and smacks it with a water hammer. The bee is not amused.

Flip aims and fires the weapon much larger than he. However, it was set up to be operated on a nice smooth swivel with just a simple trigger pull and his aim is impeccable. The massive bolt buries itself in the bee's thorax, fiendish royal jelly exploding out of the wound. The bee is very very un-amused by this.

Dana steps back and focuses her significant mind powers, forming a strong energy field around her body. She then pulls a scroll out and activates it, suddenly six of her appear inside her square, who knows which is real!!!

Guy moves over and buries an arrow into the bee and while it doesn't seem to do nearly as much as Flip's bolt it seems to clip a wing and the bee thumps to the ground, no longer flying. He and Dana quickly tell the engineers that they will be over to help soon!

Round 2 Bless is up! 29/30
Giant Queen Bee!!!(-40, -2 AC)
Gordy
Flip
Dana (5 mirror images 30/30)
Torsten (-8, Bull's Strength 29/30, Alch. Grease, -1 Con)
Taniian (Magic Weapon 9/10)
Guy
Same Giant Queen Bee Again? WTF!!! (-40, -2 AC)
Siege Engineers

Bold is up!

At Guy's request, Taniian uses the scroll of Obscuring Mist knowing the fearless Kitsune will soon grant his allies vision through it.

"Hopefully that helps. I expect to hear your song as soon as possible, Guy."

Then, realising that the foxy bard will need to concentrate on his magic initially, Taniian moves into position at the catapult, ready to trade out again as soon as feasible.

Okay then. I'd like to know what I need to retcon please. I'm guessing cancel Guy's attack so he can put up the song? Also, I see now that I missed Torsten's action in my combat summary, so I'll get it in the next summary which will go live once I hear from Guy.